Mazel tovs all around!

1) To Judah Kaplan, on his engagement to Carolyn Krupnick. I'm so happy for Judah I can hardly describe it. Although it's a complicated happiness, due to my missing Judah's former wife, Jenny, I feel so incredibly glad that Judah has found a wonderful woman and is looking forward to a happy future. When Judah called yesterday to tell me, it restored my faith in the generosity of the cosmos. I hope that the next time I'm in the States I'll be able to meet Carolyn and wish her "mazal tov" in person.

2) To Chava Boylan, whose bridal shower I hosted last night. It went very well -- probably the best shower I've ever been to-- because it was so unshowery. No stupid paper-plate hat made out of the wrapping paper! No bridal gowns made out of toilet paper! No drawn-out stories from each person about how great the bride is (though of course I personally could go on for hours about that - Chava is terrific). After giving people time to eat, the "program" part of it was short, sweet, and to the point. My co-host, Aviva, and I had prepared a short, humorous, parody of Megillat Esther, in which we re-told the story of how Chava and Marc got to this point. Then, Chava opened the gifts, which each guest had connected somehow to the Megillah (she got a lot of perfumes and body lotions, and things for cooking and setting a "banquet" table . . . really, anything can be connected to the Megillah). Then a short dvar Torah, and off to dessert! That was it. Fun, Torah-related, focused on the bride, good food . . . and we're done. No shtick!!!! What a "mechaya."

3) To Prince Charles and Camilla. I've been turning this over in my head, because on the one hand, he committed adultery with Camilla, and adultery is so not cool. On the other hand, everyone knows that Camilla is the love of his life. They've been together since long before the unfortunate Diana ever came into the picture. In many ways, it's about time that they made official something that everyone has known is bashert for a long time. In many ways I see Prince Charles as rather a tragic figure, and it's about time the royalty cut through all the BS and just let the man have a little serenity in his life.

That's all for today. I'm off to visit Harediland. Have a Shabbat Shalom.